As we forced ourselves unwillingly through the full text of the Strathclyde Commission report in the name of professionalism this afternoon, it struck us that perhaps in our partisan haste we’d been just a tiny bit harsh on it.

After all, while the extension of tax powers is at best an empty charade and at worst an expensive millstone around the neck of the Scottish Government’s budget, and the proposals for devolving elements of welfare vague and highly unlikely to ever be implemented, there are a couple of recommendations that would, while minor in the context of Holyrood’s overall finances, at least be welcome.

Now, “serious examination of the case” is a hefty dose of weasel words – wasn’t “examining the case” exactly what your commission was supposed to be doing for the last 15 months, your lordship? You looked into it for a year and a quarter and arrived at the conclusion that someone should look into it? Well, take a lollipop for trying.

But nevertheless, a share of Scottish VAT receipts coming to Holyrood would be an unequivocally welcome step – depending, of course, on whether it was balanced by a reduction in the Barnett Formula, two words which don’t appear anywhere in the report.

(Nor does the near-synonymous phrase “block grant”. Readers more cynical than us might be tempted to arrive at the conclusion that talking about devolving taxation to Scotland without spelling out exactly what the ramifications for Barnett would be was a staggeringly disingenuous omission.)

So, Air Passenger Duty and VAT? Something tangible, at any rate, and certainly more than Scottish Labour were prepared to offer. But wait. What’s this lurking in a dark and dusty corner of the Wings library?

Correct us if we’re wrong, readers, but that looks an awful like a couple of paragraphs from the final report of the Calman Commission, published not so long ago (June 2009) after the Unionist parties’ supposedly definitive joint deliberation on devolution.

The Calman Commission recommended that Air Passenger Duty SHOULD be devolved, just like the Strathclyde Commission has. It may be worth bearing that in mind when contemplating the likelihood of it actually happening this time.

The Calman Commission also concluded that a share of VAT should NOT be assigned and general taxation SHOULDN’T be devolved, because it could introduce “serious economic inefficiences” – presumably the hundreds of millions of pounds this site has repeatedly pointed out would be wasted on pointless duplication of HMRC resources.

We feel, therefore, that we may be able to hazard a guess at the outcome of the “serious examination of the case” for VAT-assignment suggested by Lord Strathclyde.

(In fairness, Calman rejected it because Holyrood wouldn’t be able to adjust tax to compensate in bad years, but while that problem is solved in theory by the proposed devolution of income tax, we’ve already established why it can’t be done in reality.)

Or if you need a tl;dr version of all the above: “Yeah, yeah, heard it before, pal.”

Bollocks to all this empty talk! Give us all the Oil revenue, the Crown Estate, the Excise revenue on Whisky, revenue generated form future renewables such as wind and tide, along with all the VAT. In fact all revenue from Scotland.
Stop the bullshit Unionists. We don’t care a stuff about your Peerages, your London careers, your London ambitions (Kezia?), whether you get to keep current peerages (Foulkes and Wallace!).
Give us Scotland back and stop being a bunch of backstabbing windbags.

Never mind all that…… Gordon Brown has just entered the referendum debate for the fifth time. Like the fading film star Norma Desmond says in “Sunset Boulevard” Tell Mr DeMille I’m ready for my close-up

When something is ‘missed out’ or ‘not mentioned’ in any document from the unionist parties,it is usually missing deliberately, and they don’t want any publicity about it because soon, it will no longer exist.

Why on earth would anybody choose Lord Strathclyde a confessed adulterer to commission a report? In my opinion the man is not fit for this purpose or is this the norm in the modern day society? Sorry Rev for not checking the picture link

I’m looking forward to Lord Strathclyde explaining how the “new” Universal Credit works, given that it is a £12.5 billion write-off disaster zone and has even had to have its own specialised language invented to describe what an utter policy meltdown armageddon it is.

I’m looking forward even more to Scottish Labour explaining how the Universal Credit flagship policy, which they share with the Tories, is going to be made to work. Obviously the fact that the right-wing religious wing-nut IDS is its author and in charge of the project didn’t seem to give them a moment’s hesitation in making this British upper-class twit’s delusions about how British society work their own.

i cannot get excited about anything this balloon says, or action cranky either

its bollox folks

they have no intention of doing anthing except dismantling holyrood if we vote no

they are willing to dismantle bbc scotland in the process

o/t
could anyone confirm that gary robertson was pro yes, as is being claimed (buried in other news) in the guardian?
if so, he fooled me……isnt that wat bbc journalists are supposed to do.
perhaps the next protest against the bbc biased should be on the same day that the journos strike? might carry more weight. id love to hear their thoughts?

I think the big relocation of The Scotsman has begun. Scaffolding up at the very front door, as they try (to what I assume) is move the very large brass sign,’The Scotsman’ from the front façade (seriously …how funny would it be if it fell and cracked off the pavement and broke in two!)

I took a couple of pictures of it on my phone. Rev …if I catch them actually lowering the sign, then seriously, I’ll photograph it, and send it to you! I’m sure it would make your day knowing that you broke the b******!

For those who love their grassroots journalists, here’s the excellent Sonia Poulton ambushing IDS and Esther McVey over the deaths of nearly 11,000 disabled people at the hands of DWP and Atos medical staff –Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey running from the truthhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPvXaTBwWA&feature=youtu.be

Schrodingers Cat says:
perhaps the next protest against the bbc biased should be on the same day that the journos strike? might carry more weight.

It occurred to me that, given that we will not have a march this year (for very good reasons), maybe something almost as good (or better, at this stage of the game) would be a serious day of mass protest outside the BBC at Pacific Quay.

A wee bit O/T, OK a fair bit, but perhaps we just don’t understand the House of Lords. An interesting insight into the Bedroom Tax.

“On the Welfare Reform Bill, the Commons authorities found that privilege was engaged in 46 of the 110 Lords amendments. The Government asked the Commons to agree to 35 of those 46 amendments and to reject the remaining 11. In agreeing to those 35 Lords amendments, each a concession to this House, the Commons waived its financial privilege for more than £300 million of public expenditure. Therefore, we are really talking only about the remaining 11 Lords amendments, which, on policy grounds, the Government could not accept and which they asked the House of Commons to reject. When the Commons voted to reject each of those amendments, the only reason it could cite was privilege.” – Lord Strathclyde

@Calgacus MacAndrews
I watched a derek bateman video the other day and it strikes me that these journalists who are about to go on strike could do with a hand
I have spent the last 12 months slating (mercilessly) bbc journalist without really knowing their true situation is,

perhaps a demo in support of them is not without value, or publicity impact…….i dont know, im not really sure whats happening here
unionist trolls on the guardian slating gary robertson, mad jock mc mad doing same (and I pay attention to what MJMM says) I am missing something here
bateman stated that he was a nationalist, always had been, and i believe him. is it possible that so are all of the journalists presently being replaced in PQ?
confused cat this evening. sorry for going off topic rev

So the unelected Tory Peer may give Scotland powers to raise income tax. The devolved Scottish Parliament were given powers to vary income tax but have never used it. It’s a poison chalice, who is going to vote to raise income tax in a devolved parliament, nobody.

Note his lordship intends that Scotland is to get no revenues from Scotland’s oil which will continue to flow into Westminster coffers. What a disgraceful state of affairs even Orkney and Shetland Islands Councils benefit from oil revenues.

What about giving Scotland Corporation tax much of which is generated by the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen, you must be joking he scoffs as he shuffles off to enjoy a good dinner at his London club.

So on the day Ruth Davidson tries to get away with income tax devo con, Channel 4 news sends Rees Mogg to Scotland to say how much England needs and loves Scotland over and over, apparently Scots gave more to humanity than any other world er non country, even the ancient Greeks and Rees Mogg says devo as it is great but thats enough now and there is no actual devo detail whatsoever.

@ Schrodingers Cat, gary robertson was BBC unionist bias hard core and with gusto. He’s got the boot because the BBC now need freshish attack from what looks initially like the big guns. Robertson got the job down and spent his broadcasting just like the rest of them in Pacific Quay, annihilating Scottish democracy.

Now its time to deliver the BBC in Scotland coupe de grace to Scotland as a nation state, they hope. Good riddens Gary

sorry for disrupting the thread
as i said, i dont even get bbc radio where i live
(arse end of uncollapsed 11th dimensional probability wave)
too many hills in the way

BOT
“Now, “serious examination of the case” is a hefty dose of weasel words – wasn’t “examining the case” exactly what your commission was supposed to be doing for the last 15 months, your lordship?”
devastating critique Rev. that sentence in itself completely damns his lardships report. I posting it verbatim into the guradian so that the creeps there could see what real journalism looks like

you dont over take the sun distribution figures by accident Rev. Dont burn yourself out either, we are going to need you. bring in some more 3rd party journalists, id like to hear batemans take on what is happening in the BBC
thanks for the heads up heed

now is the time to organise and do what is required to win
i will continue to “nurse my wrath” until the time is right
the 19th of sept

me, im going to organise the delivery of leaflets and news papers. this is not what we should be doing ourselves

we have spent the last year reading these blogs given to us by the rev. I now have the answers, and the quips, and the punch lines, and also the detailed know how to chap on folks doors and I am ready to answer questions
I have also been a door to door salesman. knocking on folks doors is very hard work. canvasing is not for everyone.
but the glib posters on here have all it takes. the recent discussion in my YES group was the lack of canvasing, not leafleting, there are plenty who can do that.
Canvasing is what wingers should be doing………….they are the best qualified to do this. This is what the Rev has been training us for.
lets do it

Parity now for men in the most No friendly BPC pollster (due to methodolgy), which means ahead for Yes here as is regular in online, more anonymous polls.

Ladies should follow in turn as they did in 2011. They’re just more polite.

After all, if we managed to glean anything from that recent ICM mess of a poll, it’s that women are at least twice as likely to feel uncomfortable telling people what they plan to vote on what is a very sensitive issue. 20% of them at minimum feel so and that’s just those who admit it.

Off Topic
I am wondering if anyone here may be able to help. It is quite possible that I may be on holiday on the 18 Sept. If I apply for a postal vote would I receive the documentation by the 5th September (the start of my holiday)?

Scary similarity between Lord Strathclyde’s picture and that of Blair McDougall in the Straight to the Bottom article the other day. They could be the ‘before’ pictures in an advert for some miracle health product. Or maybe the ‘after’ pictures on 19 September.

I have some real reservations about this poll. I was called by IPSOS MORI the other day, they were very polite, asked if I had time to answer questions about ‘events in Scotland’ and then they asked if I were between the ages of 18-34, when I said no they asked if there was anyone else in the house who was in that age bracket and when I told them that there was not they thanked me for my time and hung up.

I believe that it is fairly well known that women in the 18-34 bracket are/have been the hardest to reach? So it does not surprise me that there is such a large number of women voting ‘no’ in this poll. I’m not suggesting that IPSOS MORI are doing anything to skew data, and it maybe that there is a break down of age groups in this poll (I haven’t seen the data) but it does strike me as very strange

What an awful programme! Let’s lead Lenny Henry into making a gratuitous plea for the union. Now I feel ill looking at Sarah against that background – ‘red and green should not be seen’, after all. Where’s the ‘off’ button..?

No doubt it’s been scrutinised here, in the annals of WOS, but when we run our own show, abolishing/ APT wouldn’t half make a hub here viable (prestwick anyone ?). Won’t harm the tourist numbers either.
Shame it’s only a mibbes type offer.

Don’t care if Strathclyde had a “sex scandal”. But I can never see or hear of the man without thinking of him as Lord Trafigura, whose board he lucratively sat on. Business like Tony Soprano’s – waste disposal. Toxic, but nevertheless shipped and dumped on the folks that live in the Ivory Coast.
So I would be wary of anything this man says he is ready to throw away….

Iain Gray’s Subway Lament says:
2 June, 2014 at 9:19 pm
God Mori poll though I feel a bit sorry for Prof. John Curtice who is constantly having to look for excuses now after his incompetent ramping of the No vote and Better Together.

He hasn’t learned a thing since he was predicting certain doom for the SNP in 2011.

I phoned the local electoral registration office about the postal votes and they said that they were sending them out at the end of August . To make sure you’ll find the no for your local office in your local council,s web site.

“Lord Strathclyde”- the pomp and ceremony, deference and privilege the Lords are treated to makes me sick. Juxtapose with those around us who can’t afford to heat their homes or buy enough food to live. Get rid. What struck me the last time I subjected myself to Scottish Questions in the Commons was how similar it has become to the Lords – how the two have converged.

If we had a vote on whether or not to abolish the Lords how high would it go? 75%? 80? Higher maybe?

The narrative on Scotland 2014 was predictably “wow, look at all these new ‘powers’ the tories are ‘promising’ – the question is, are they enough?

It is shameful that the proposals by the 3 unionists have been taken at face value, unquestioned without any rigorous investigative journalism by the BBC. What bleedin use is any of it.

The back of fag packet lib dems proposals were weak as piss. Devon nano was gibberish and the conservative proposals, well Stu tears it all apart.

It all smacks of desperation. So many of these ideas actually make less sense to me than centralised tax within the UK!

sry for going O/T a bit rev but this made my blood boil,once again MSM show total bias towards the westminster parties couldnt believe my eyes but that excuse for a politician wee ruthie getting loads of airtime without one single person to contradict her position ,STV disgraceful,the best of it was though in her endless drivel she mixed up brown with osborne ,doesnt she know who is in her own party?
And how does a politician who if i remember rightly said there would be no more powers to the Scottish government get away with such a u-turn in policy without being pulled up for it by the media damn disgraceful.
Keep your jam ruthie we are taking back all the cake vote yes Scotland!

Not much point in me commenting – it’s all been said far more eloquently than I could say it already. All I’ll add is if anyone is dumbass enough to believe we’ll get extra powers after a no vote then I have a paper bag that will stop bullets, tornados and shark bites that I’ll sell for the right price.

‘even this can be sacrificed on the altar of his own ego. His altar-ego if you will.’ 🙂

A bit O/T, re next WOS night out, Chipmonkey has posted that there are 2 World Cup quarter finals on the 4th July – but none on the next Friday, 11th July. Will the footy keep all the WOS footy fans away from a night out?

Dave McEwan Hill – I hadn’t seen that particular vid of the PQ demo – the man and both the young women who spoke were highly articulate at voicing what we all think and say on here. That really needs to go viral methinks, and hopes. 🙂

Don’t be fooled. Income tax is only 25% of taxes. Westminster is still trying to continue to take £Billions out of Scotland, including Oil tax revenues (taxed at 80%) to subsidise illegal wars, Trident and tax evasion (by foreign multinationals) through the City of London. Westminster and HMRC not fit for purpose. Vote YES.

Re. clashing with quarter finals. I know that a good game can be enjoyable, but I much prefer unique events. There will most probably be another World Cup in four years and Scotland might even have qualified. I think there are at least a couple of Yes events in Edinburgh on the 7th.

P.S. I’m out off town from the 8th and would hate to miss two gatherings in a row. 😉

The democratic deficit?! A bloated rich man with a long silly name, in an even sillier furry cape, tells us all what to do from London and there’s loads more where this sleaze bag came from. If they didn’t have the BBC where would they be?

Spot on. None of the pro-union promise-makers know if they will ever be in a position to fulfil the promises they are making, so we’d have to be insane to listen to them. In saying that, I’m probably being rather generous to them. It is more likely that they have no intention of fulfilling the promises they are making. They could easily be distracted from their avowed intent by the call of another foreign war.

I see the BNE spokescreature has insisted that Scotland would not be admitted into Europe until China has joined (or something like that)

The spokescreature (pictured below) has also suggested that the EU may well consider the application from the microbes from the seas of the moon Europa before it could consider any application from Scotland.

BTW Saw your post about the Marybank foodbank and would like to say what a good effort. I did look to see if I could contribite from afar, but they only take direct deliveries of foodstuffs, so not anything I could do to help from Aberdeen.

Perhaps Wings could arrange some sort of fundraiser for them if some of you guys who are local could get stuff to them?

X_Sticks. Thanks for that. Julie and her crew are doing brilliant work there, but need all the help they can get. Check the Twitter feed @MaryhillBank for updates. They are looking into the possibility of a Paypal donation scheme, but for those far away who would like to contribute, you can send supermarket gift cards for now.

The address is on the Twitter account. I am working in the Netherlands Monday to Friday, but when home I can provide transport and when I’m away my daughter can step in.

It’s not a Trussell Trust affair, but a community led initiative and it’s inspiring to see the commitment from the people involved.

Hellish that we need the damn things in the first place. I wonder how much the vermine robes that the fat twat in the photie’s wearing cost? .

If there is another demonstration at PQ it has to be promoted with plenty of time with international agencies invited. RT would be happy to have a look I’m sure and the Spanish among others
I’m listening to RT at the moment (channel 85 on Freeview) as I do every morning now.I understand fully where it is coming from and that is factored into what I hear from them but their judgement earlier on the US hypocrisy in Afghanistan was right on the button

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